Swimming in the Seine

Brian David-MarshallThursday, November 30, 2006

elcome to my second go-round for The Past Returns Week. I have written more columns for this site than anyone else, so it only fair that I get to go twice. This week I am returning, as close to live and direct as this column ever gets, from Paris, France at the conclusion of Day One of the 2006 Magic: The Gathering World Championships to break down the results from the Standard format at the conclusion of six rounds of play. Not only will I be bringing you the freshest decklists straight from the oven, but I will be stacking them on top of each other – in old SWS fashion – taking them from first to worst.

The field was pretty diverse, and players not only had a hard time figuring out what to play but what to prepare to play against. The only decks that people seemed sure they would face were Izzetron decks, with the Hellkite/Whelk tandem, and Dragonstorm. After that the field was wide open for anything from the Angel deck to Zoo variants with stops at virtually every letter in between. Feel free to do a metagame alphabet in the forums if you want some extra credit.

I am fighting against the clock to get this done so there may not be as much material as you might typically get in SWS during a less hectic, less racing-against-the-deadline, less Randy-is-tapping-his-toes-waiting-to-do-the-end-of-day-wrap-up, and generally less hyphenated day.

Boros Deck Wins was both one of the most played and most successful decks for the Day One field. Thirty-three players chose the popular red-white archetype with its parade of efficient beaters and downpour of burn. At least three different players took the deck to perfect 6-0 records. There should be little surprise from the readers at home that Tsuyoshi Fujita righted his ship with his favorite archetype. Back-to-back Pro Tour finalist Willy Edel also built a version for the Brazilian National team to use. It has carried him (although he is not on the team) and captain Paulo Vitor Damo De Rosa to sterling records.

At last year’s World Championships the Japanese portion of the field all ran GhaziGlare to a dominating finish. This year 13 Japanese players chose to run a blue-white tron deck that touched black for Mystical Teachings. The kill card? Triskelavus…hence the name TriscuitTron. Itaru Ishida was the overall leader on Day One playing the deck that was designed by World Champion Katsuhiro Mori.

On Tuesday afternoon we paid a visit to Gabriel Nassif’s house to get an inside look at the playtesting he, Heezy, Jelger, Neil Reeves, and Rich Hoaen were doing. I was happy to learn that Gabriel Nassif had been deep in the think tank for two weeks before the event and not letting his co-conspirators get into any distractions. Perhaps teasing at the famous line by Gabe Walls in regard to the Hawaii House, Hexxy informed me that he and Nassif had indeed busted open this Standard format. No one else from the Paris apartment chose to believe them, but with Nassif sitting at 5-0-1 perhaps Heezy was correct.

There were a number of other variants on the same idea – and plenty of straight-up Snow White builds – but Nassif’s was the most successful of the whole lot.

Tied with Nassif at 5-0-1 was Norwegian National Team Captain Øyvind Anderson. His deck was one of the first I saw this weekend when a player – I think it was Rasmus Sibast – cast Wrath of God and then followed it up with Savannah Lions and Hypnotic Specter. Øyvind designed the deck and as such chose the name Panda Connection – much to the consternation of his teammate Nicolai Herzog. Herzog seemed even more concerned with the deck’s mana requirements on both sides of the black/white axis. Øyvind seemed perfectly fine with it on the day.

There were a number of other exciting decks, including the Frank Karsten-designed deck that is heaped under Good Color Control since it plays, you know, the good colors – red, white, and blue. Karsten’s deck is basically a three-color CounterMesa deck that touches red for Angels and Demonfire. Tiago Chan continued his recent streak of Pro Tour success by piloting the deck to a 5-1 record on Day One.

Rookie of the Year candidate Jan-Moritz Merkel followed up his winning Kobe performance with a 5-1 kickoff to his World Championships (then immediately hopped in a side draft, or so my sources tell me). The deck he was playing looked pretty similar to his draft deck from Kobe, actually, with blue and green beatdown. Based on the Scryb and Force deck designed by Naoki Shimizu, Simic Beatdown decks were very popular this week, with over 30 players choosing to untap their Spectral Force by bouncing a Forest.

Another player who has been making a name for himself has been Guillaume Wafo-Tapa, whose eponymous Wafo-Tapo decks were made famous in the pages of your regularly scheduled Thursday column. Guillaume was at it again this weekend and concocted a blue-black control monstrosity that features the unexpected Dralnu, Lich Lord and his Bosium Strip routine (Gasp! In the Louvre no less!). The deck was played by most of the name French players, but it was the deck’s progenitor who had the most success with it.

There should be plenty more decks revealed in the coming days – including the mysterious third French deck, Project X, but in the meantime I hope these decks have given you something to take to FNM tonight. Also, below is a standings finish by deck archetype.

Off to do the wrap-up and then to the Hall of Fame dinner. See you in my regularly scheduled day and time slot next week!